Crime Can Strike at Any Time, and More Than Once

By Marvin Druger  |  mdruger@syr.edu

 

The Bus Incident

I got on a crowded bus in Los Angeles. There were no seats available. I had to stand and hold on to a hanging strap. A young man, about 20, came aboard at one of the stops. He was carrying a cleaner’s clothing bag. He stood next to me and started chatting. He asked me, “Do you like the Los Angeles Rams?” “I love them,” I answered, trying to have a friendly conversation. He got off the bus at the next bus stop and brushed past me on the way out. “I said, “Have a good day!” As he jumped off the bus, he yelled to me, “You’re not going to have a good day, man.” I reached into my side pocket. My wallet was gone. I screamed to the bus driver, “Help. He stole my wallet. Stop the bus.” Instead of stopping, the driver slammed the bus doors shut and drove on.

I got off the bus at the next stop and ran across the street into a pharmacy to call the police. The line was busy. This was before the era of cell phones. A police car finally arrived. As I was reporting what happened to the officer, another police car pulled up in back of us. The policeman who was questioning me said, “Would you mind telling the details to the policeman in the car behind us. I’m off duty now.” I repeated my story to the new policeman. He was kind enough to drive me back to my hotel across town. I called my family and told them about the theft.

The next day, the police told me that they had found my wallet on the ground at the bus stop. The only things the thief had taken were my money and my AARP membership card.  The thief missed taking a $50 bill that was hidden in my wallet.

 

A potential crime

A potential crime threat occurred when I was in Puerto Rico. It was midnight and I had just left a party not far from my hotel. Instead of taking a taxi, I decided to walk to my hotel. A car pulled up and stopped at the curb in front of me. A man jumped out of the car and stood in front of me in a crouched position, blocking my path. I didn’t know what to do. So I just laughed and briskly walked by the man. I wondered what this strange incident was all about.

About a week later, I met a friend who had been at the same party. She had observed my actions that evening. She told me that the same man confronted her and her boyfriend. The man hit her boyfriend on the head with a gun that he was carrying and he stole my friend’s purse. I had no idea that the man was carrying a gun and pointing it at me. I just laughed and walked past him. He must have thought that I was crazy to do that. A close crime encounter that ended well for me.

 

The house break-in

It was winter and there was snow on the ground. I walked into my kitchen in the morning and felt a cold, wintry chill. The window was open. I suddenly noticed that my kitchen TV was gone. I looked out the window and saw footprints in the snow, leading to the driveway. I ran outside and saw that my car had also disappeared.

Someone had broken into my house overnight and I immediately called the police. They sent an officer and he studied the footprints in the snow. “Oh,” he exclaimed. “It was the T. boys. They have committed hundreds of robberies in the area but were never caught in the act.”

The modus operandi of the T. boys was to ask their friends what they wanted, e.g., a TV, a radio, a CD player, etc. Then the T. boys would search houses through the windows to find the desired merchandise and break into the house through a window. They would steal car keys, deliver the stolen goods to their clients and drop the stolen car off at the old Sears parking lot downtown.

Sure enough, the police found my car in the Sears parking lot. I needed the car to do carpooling for my children, but the police wouldn’t release it to me until they had looked for fingerprints, etc. The officer told his manager who committed the robbery. The manager said, “It was the T. boys. Give him the car. There’s nothing more we can do unless we catch them in the act.” They gave me the car keys.

 

Crime pays

Older people tend to hide cash somewhere in their house. They seem to feel the need to have cash readily available in case of an emergency. Cash can be stored in a freezer. In a mattress. A toilet tank. A closet or simply in a can under the bed. For several years, I had been storing cash in a Maxwell House coffee can inside a locked cabinet near my computer. I had a chain and lock around the handles of the cabinet and there was also jewelry stored in the cabinet.

Then, catastrophe struck. I fell and broke my hip, leading to a series of unfortunate adventures in rehab facilities and senior living centers. The cabinet with my can of cash and jewelry were transported by movers from my home in Syracuse to one of the senior rehab centers. I decided to count the cash; but saw that the chain on the cabinet had been cut and the can of cash was gone. I had been saving cash in that can for many years and the total amount of cash in the can was about $10,000.

There were only three possibilities for the theft of the cash. It could have been stolen at home. The movers of my furniture from my house to the senior living center could have taken it. Or the theft could have occurred at the senior living center. I called the police, but there was nothing they could do to solve the crime. The officer told me, “Don’t keep so much cash hidden in your home.” My daughter told me to pretend that I went on a very expensive vacation. I am trying to pretend that my stolen cash helped some very needy person survive and prosper.

So, it does seem that crime does pay…especially if the criminal doesn’t get caught. I learned that hiding cash in your home is not a good idea. Good advice for all.